To prepare for challenging lifts such as those in Ascension,a piece choreographed by Bill Wade and recently directedat Purdue by Sally Wallace, dancers work with Jeff Wallace,a movement coach. Wallace begins a movement sessionby helping dancers confront perceptions of their bodies. Heblindfolds dancers so that they don’t know whom they areworking with during warm-up exercises. “The intent is toexplore what’s actually possible without being constrained byour concepts of what’s possible.”This might involve encouraging dancers to explore waysof folding each other’s bodies, or to find ways to climb upon,compress, or stretch one another. All of these movementshappen while dancers are still blindfolded; they must rely onkinesthetic clues and develop their ability to sense gravity,weight, momentum, and balance, simultaneously navigatingphysical interaction with their partner.

Following this warm-up exercise, Wallace explains to
dancers that their bones are much stronger than their muscles.

“Our bodies are designed to take weight through the legs andfeet. So if you can create a situation where a partner’s weightis basically over your pelvis, then you are going to be able tosupport him or her.”To further illustrate this, Wallace offers the example of apiggyback. If you give someone a piggyback ride with his legswrapped around your pelvis, and he leans back, taking theweight from over your feet, the way you support him is to leanforward—changing the shared center of gravity until it is againover your feet.

In the koala lift, two dancers stand face-to-face and onedancer wraps her legs around the other dancer’s hips and herarms around her partner’s neck. In order to establish morestability and remain further connected, Wallace encouragesthe dancers to lean away from one another. Weight stillcomes down through the supporting person’s feet, and theshared center of gravity is maintained because the dancers’torsos are leaning away from one another in what’s knownas a counterbalance move. “People come out of a movementsession knowing their bodies and understanding what’spossible,” says Wallace. “They become more physicallyempathetic and aware of another body.”Chelsey Garn, a third-year student in psychology, and Nathan Claus, a master’s student in forestry, demonstrate a mid-level pelvis drapethat requires a shared center of gravity. To watch the koala lift, visit our website at cla.purdue.edu/think. Photos by Mark Simons.